Rain expected throughout weekend

It will be a wet weekend and, if Thursday was any indication, a dangerous one.

Rain is expected to continue on and off through Sunday night across much of Southern California.

And as the drops began falling Wednesday afternoon, the result on the roads was as predictable as a long line at In-N-Out.

The California Highway Patrol said it handled 283 crashes in Los Angeles County from midnight to 2 p.m. Thursday. That's more than three times the 75 that were reported in the same period a week earlier, when it wasn't raining.

"It just goes to show what a little rain does to us here in Southern California," said Officer Saul Gomez, a spokesman at the CHP's Southern Division.

One of those crashes was fatal. A person was killed in a crash on the westbound 134 Freeway in Toluca Lake just before 4:45 a.m.

Crashes spike every time it rains.

"People are driving a little too fast and they're not able to stop, and they're bouncing off each other," said Sgt. Kurt Smith, a supervisor with the Los Angeles police Valley Traffic Division.

Drivers will have a few more days to get used to the rain. The National Weather Service said Los Angeles County is expected to get a quarter to three-quarters of an inch through Sunday (slightly more in foothills and mountains).

There will be a storm system today, another on Saturday and a third on Sunday.

David Sweet, a weather service meteorologist in Oxnard, said the day after day of rain is the kind of weather normally seen in Oregon and Washington - not California. He said a southerly dip in the jet stream is responsible for bringing the Seattle-like weather to L.A.

But the L.A. area should get only light to moderate rain, he said. More is expected to the north and west, with San Luis Obispo County getting 1 to 3 inches.

Further north, from Central California to Washington, the predictions were for 2 to 5 inches, with flooding possible.

But some led to long delays. A jackknifed big rig on the 5 Freeway closed all lanes for hours before dawn. A few hours later, yet another shut down the westbound 210 Freeway where it splits from the 134.

Off the freeways, the crashes were less serious. Smith said statistics weren't available Thursday, but the number of crashes in the San Fernando Valley didn't seem out of the ordinary.

Generally, he said, there's an increase in crashes in wet weather, but not in serious ones.